Riot Games’ Valorant is one of the most popular esports titles today, enjoyed by an equal balance of high-tiered professionals and ultra-competitive players as well as casual gamers and content creators.
Today, Valorant remains one of the most streamed games on gaming streaming platforms.
One of the largest appeals of the game is Riot Games’ commitment to diverse representation. The game’s lineup of characters — also called Agents — hail from real-life countries around the world, and its growing rotation of maps is similarly based on real-life locations, from India to Portugal.
At the same time, the Valorant esports scene is also a widely international affair, with teams and players from around the world competing every season in various major cities worldwide, such as Berlin, Shanghai, and Reykjavik.
This year, the Valorant Champions Tour finale will culminate in the Valorant Championship taking place in Seoul, South Korea, for the first time in its history. Throughout the year, 44 franchised teams from Valorant’s four International Leagues competed regionally and internationally in regular and mid-season Masters tournaments. In the end, the best of the best teams from around the world will clash against each other for the ultimate Champs trophy.
Given the game’s commitment to diverse representation, it’s interesting to consider the amount of talent and skill coming from the Canadian region. In fact, some of the biggest names in the esports game’s relatively fresh history hail from the country.
Below, we’ll look at some of the prominent Canadian Valorant talents.
Tyson ‘TenZ’ Ngo
Having lifted the first-ever international Valorant trophy with North American team Sentinels back in 2021, TenZ was a big name in Valorant even before the game fully established its esports ecosystem. Aside from his Valorant esports career, TenZ is one of the biggest Valorant streamers in the scene, quickly establishing his brand as the face of the game. After a two-year slump, TenZ recently lifted his second Masters trophy for Sentinels at Masters Madrid.
TenZ’s popularity among pros and casual players makes his playstyle one of the most replicated. His Valorant pro settings are constantly shared online so fans and gamers can copy his crosshair, sensitivity, and graphics settings. Additionally, he’s one of the most well-equipped Valorant pros in the scene, boasting a large collection of mice. Dedicated TenZ fans are also well aware of his habit of switching his settings and mouse in the middle of games, showing off his mechanical skill.
Jimmy ‘Marved’ Nguyen
The next Canadian on our list is Marved, who briefly played alongside TenZ in Sentinels before rejoining his teammates and OpTic core members in North American team NRG. The ex-OpTic player initially joined Sentinels as a ‘sixth man’ or substitute player thanks to his prestigious tournament history under OpTic. Like TenZ, Marved had lifted a Masters trophy alongside OpTic and was brought in to help a struggling Sentinels roster.
Recently, Marved has been released from the NRG roster and team following not-so-satisfying results in the 2024 season. Still, after TenZ’s grand comeback to the international stage and his second Masters trophy, there’s certainly hope for Marved’s return to greatness given the right team and roster.
Yassine ‘Subroza’ Taoufik
While no longer playing professionally, Subroza quickly became a legend in the Valorant scene. Subroza is currently signed as a content creator and streamer for TSM after the org missed out on franchising for the Valorant esports ecosystem. Despite his absence in the pro scene, however, there’s no denying his lasting impact on the game and its meta.
Namely, Subroza is known for coining some iconic Valorant terms and phrases. The term ‘Roza ult’ is described as the inability to land a kill or benefit teammates from Raze’s ultimate, a rocket launcher. The term became a commonly said phrase every time players would miss or fail to get a kill using the Agent’s launcher. Another Valorant term many players stick to today is directly named after the player after he killed an entire team from an unnamed spot in the map Ascent. Today, the spot is still affectionately called ‘Subroza’ by players and pros alike.
Michael ‘Shroud’ Grzesiek
Finally, this one may be considered cheating because it’s a short-lived era. Additionally, Shroud is more known for his professional streak in the rival FPS esports title, Counter-Strike, than Valorant before retiring for full-time streaming in 2018. However, during the Sentinels slump in 2022, the org dropped the Internet-breaking announcement revealing Shroud’s return to esports, giving long-time FPS fans the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see him play alongside TenZ.
While Shroud’s stint at Sentinels failed to help the team out of its loss streak at the time, fans of the org are not likely to forget his time with the roster anytime soon. While it’s unlikely that we’ll see Shroud competing professionally for Valorant again, he still occasionally streams the game on his highly-viewed Twitch channel and has remained friends with ex-teammate TenZ.
If you found this post interesting, you can check out our previous post on the Scugog Hall of Fame, featuring inductees from figure skating and tennis. As Canada continues to produce top-tier esports talent, maybe we’ll see esports teams or players worthy of being inductees in the future.
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